Keeping Faith In Her Ideals

Delauro Won't Yield To Bishops

June 12, 2004|By JANICE D'ARCY; Courant Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Rep. Rosa DeLauro is uncharacteristically subdued. The staccato speech and frenetic gestures have given way to a somber tone and a nervous fiddling with her glasses, as if she longs to be somewhere else.

Normally the 3rd District Democrat would relish her situation: out front leading her colleagues, attracting national notice in an important debate. But this is an extraordinary controversy, putting DeLauro's roles as a lifelong Catholic and a pro-choice advocate in painful juxtaposition.

DeLauro, 61, is heading congressional opposition to the position within the ranks of U.S. Roman Catholic Bishops to deny communion to politicians who take pro-choice positions -- and perhaps to their supporters as well.

In recent weeks, DeLauro organized her fellow Catholic representatives to join in a letter of opposition to the the bishops' idea. She is one of a handful of Democrats calling for a redefinition of the notion of Catholic-influenced politics and is speaking out against what she calls ``using the Eucharist as a political weapon.''

``I think it is important to speak out on what we think and what we feel,'' she said. ``I think people have been hurt by this. Not hurt in the political way; I mean personally hurt.''

The issue will be on the table next week, when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops convenes for a special assembly in Colorado. On the agenda for the week-long gathering is an interim report from a task force formed to study how the church should relate to Catholics whose public actions conflict with church teachings.

That question, long a concern among some in the church, made headlines earlier this year when Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, a pro-choice Catholic, emerged as the probable Democratic presidential nominee. Some Catholic bishops said they would deny communion to politicians who cast pro-choice votes. Others singled out specific politicians, such as Kerry and New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey.

It was a minority of bishops who took that stand, but it was a marked departure from the prevailing stance that allows Catholics to decide for themselves whether they should receive communion. It was followed by a statement from a top Vatican official that pro-choice politicians are not fit to receive the sacrament.

There is little chance that DeLauro would be denied communion. When she attends church, it is in her home parish in New Haven. A spokesman for the Hartford archdiocese has said the Vatican policy does not mean priests and bishops should act publicly as judges of other people.

But DeLauro felt stung just the same. From her initial run for office in 1990, DeLauro has presented herself as a pro-choice Catholic and has drawn personal and political strength from both sides of that label.

She has deeps roots in the Italian American Catholic enclave around Wooster Street in New Haven. Raised in St. Michael's parish, she attended parochial elementary and secondary schools followed by Marymount, a Catholic college in New York. When she created a biographical advertisement for her first campaign, she included a photograph of her First Communion.

At the same time, she had been chief of staff to pro-choice Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd and had headed Emily's List, an avowedly pro-choice political group.

DeLauro said she decided to take an active role in opposing a communion ban by bishops for reasons that are both political and personal.

It started late last year during a chat with Rep Nick Lampson, D-Texas, about the effect their Catholicism has on their politics.

The talk motivated her to think more deeply about the relationship between her religion and her politics. She said it prompted her to begin collecting articles and legislative information on issues relating to Catholic teaching beyond abortion: ``Hunger, housing, wages and economic justice, all these issues,'' she said.

When the communion debate erupted weeks later, DeLauro found herself well equipped to respond. Even more, she took personal offense at the notion that she was ignoring her faith during her day job.

``I'm not a product of the 14 years I've spent in this institution,'' she said of Congress. ``I'm a product of my home, my Catholic home and schooling. That is what informs what I do here and informs my votes.''

So she set out to lobby other Catholic politicians. She talked with both pro-life and pro-choice colleagues because she did not want to confront the communion threat as an abortion debate.

For DeLauro, the abortion question should not be up for public debate. For one, she said, ``It's the law.'' For another, ``This is a decision that's a difficult one that's made with spiritual guidance as well as with family. I believe in that right to choose.''

DeLauro and Lampson say the Catholic Church and Catholic voters should consider a broader range of issues.